The Rebirth of Sin (Wicked Trinity Book 2) (17 page)

“Had it not been for him, I would’ve died, Mom. Had it not been for him, I wouldn’t have realized the good in my life. I was dead inside, and whether you can agree with it or not, the pain he gave me made me live again. It made me remember all the good. It made me feel human again. You don’t see it all. I have nightmares all the time about the man who took me and tormented me. I can’t sleep a full night without him haunting my dreams.”

“You see this man as your knight in shining armor, when he’s far from it. I’ve wasted so much money on therapy. I’ll find another—better—therapist for you.”

My head was thrown into a constant guilty place, having her remind me I was still there was too much to take. Unsure of what to do to diffuse the situation, and torn over the look of disappointment on her face, I decided I could no longer remain in her company and instead went to Sonja’s house for a visit.

“While I may have lied about a lot of things, when I make a promise or a threat, I try keep my word. Speaking about my emotions…well, that’s a very tricky subject. Very few people can figure out when I’m lying or telling the truth. I don’t blame you for being so confused. I wanted you to be.”

-NOAH

The bag swayed as I hit it with an undercut. Shifting my feet, I pounded into the bean-filled bag with a rapid series of jabs, making it shift and creak.

 I had to hit something. I came back to an empty house and Keaton wasn’t answering my phone calls. I tracked her down to a friend’s place. 

The woman was infuriating.

I wasn’t in the mood for making a show of it by coming in with guns blasting and horns blowing. I would never make her think I was desperate to get her back, because I wasn’t—because I knew I never really lost her. My seed of sin was planted firmly inside her mind, and it was too late to halt the seed from sprouting branches.

I could’ve let my mind go wild with all the things she might’ve done since she left my home temporarily. Since I wasn’t in a holding cell, I worried very little. Eventually, Keaton would realize her place. She couldn’t exist in the world without me—I’d spent many months making sure things were designed that way. 

I wouldn’t wait very much longer until she culled her fight. If I had to come up with a severe solution to the problem and take her like I did the first time, so be it. What I would never do was show desperation through desperate acts.

A woman appeared out of the elevator at the other end of the sparing room. Keaton’s mother. She walked in skeptically, staring at all the fun toys I had lined up along the wall. I almost heard her gulp. “My God. Look at all these weapons.”

I grabbed the towel from off the top of the bag and blotted my face. “Mrs. Mara, did you come to congratulate me on the engagement?” I didn’t bother to ask her how she got up there. I was already teetering the line with her and needed to stay firmly on it if I hoped to get Keaton away from her and the town. I was claustrophobic here with them standing over our shoulders. 

Her eyes trailed to me, and I could tell she wanted to hit me. Her little fists balled up and her almost petite frame began to seize up. “It will be a cold day in Hell before I ever allowed my daughter to take you as her husband. How much will it take to get you away from her?”

“Come the fuck again?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“You heard me,” she said through her too perfect not to be fake teeth. “How much will it take to get you and your brainwashing activities away from my daughter?”

“Shit,” I mumbled, my eyes darting to the floor for only a second. I wasn’t expecting Keaton to tell her mother the truth. She survived on a diet of lying to her mother and making her think she and everything in her life was perfect. 

“Oh, that’s right. I know the truth about you, Noah Oliver. While I have no proof, and revealing you as the monster you are might harm my chances at a political career, I know enough.” She reached inside her bag, withdrew a book, and threw it at me.

It hit my torso and slid to the floor. I glanced down at the black leather bound book of the doctrine I never thought I would see again. “Where did you get that?”

“It doesn’t matter. What’s most important to me is getting you away from her. Noah, how much money will it take for you to stay away from my daughter?”

“More than you have.”

“My daughter means everything to me. I will sacrifice everything I have to make sure she’s safe. While it won’t take money to get you away from her, I will reveal who you really are to everyone. I have quite a few friends in the media. What would you do to make sure your secret remained safe? What would you do to make sure you stayed out of prison for all of the horrible things you’ve done?”

I stepped toward her, making her recoil from the power in my steps. “You’re an opportunistic bitch. It’s too late for you to play the role of a good mother when you never were one.”

Her mouth couldn’t have opened any wider. Her bottom lip twitched like she had so many things to say, but had no idea how to word them in the way a “proper” lady like her would be able to without letting go of her worthless manners classes.

“You want to point the finger at me for the reason your daughter is the way she is, but it’s not my fault. She was fucked up long before we crossed paths. If there is anyone to point the blame for your daughter’s mental state, it’s you.”

She gasped and her fist clenched a little tighter and raised. Seems her and Keaton shared the same fire when pushed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Gregory Mitchum?” I asked with a grin to taunt her. “Do you remember him? You probably do. He looked great on paper, and I’m sure a vapid woman such as yourself salivated for the chance to have him wed your precious daughter. I bet you threw him at Keaton every chance you could. Did you know he raped her the night of her high school graduation?”

She began to shake, her eyes watering. “No…” She shook her head hard enough to put her off balance. “That can’t be. I would’ve known.” She receded from me and almost fell onto the ground. She grabbed the nearest thing she could find to steady herself and dotted the tears from her cheeks with her fingertips. “Y-you’re a liar!” 

“Didn’t you notice a change in Keaton? Of course you didn’t. You would’ve caught it if you were a good mother—one who actually cared about her daughter.”

“If I had known,” she began, her voice sharp, “I would’ve had that man thrown under the prison no matter what it took to get him there. Keaton…hid what happened from me.”

“As her mother, you should’ve known. He wanted to kill her. Did you know that? He was supposed to kill her the night Phoebe and Reese died, but fate got in his way. His need to have her blood on his hands never died. He was a psychopathic asshole and you were too stuck in your own world of tea parties, political aspirations, and boardroom meetings to care.”

“That is far from the truth,” she snarled at me. “You have no idea what her father and I did to make sure he would pay for what he did to her fiancé and his sister. We did everything we could to get him convicted. Money doesn’t bring us unfettered power. If it had, Gregory would’ve never been able to see another day outside of a prison cell. If I’d known what he did to my daughter, it would’ve happened sooner.”

“It’s possible you weren’t rich enough. It’s also possible”—I lifted a brow, the corner of my mouth curling upward—“you didn’t suck the right cock.”

“How dare you speak to me like this.” Her shout echoed off the walls. “I’ve sacrificed and done so much to make sure my daughter had the life she deserved—a life that was much better than mine or my husband’s. All I’ve ever wanted for her was to give her a life where she would never have to struggle like her father and I did. A life where she would never go without. That’s all I ever wanted for her.”

“Your husband…maybe struggled, but you?” Sliding my hands in my pockets, I flippantly shrugged at her. “You were born with money. You don’t have a clue as to what it’s like to have nothing.”

She shook her head at me. “You’re wrong. Very wrong.” The judgment in her face was enough to push me further into wanting to put her in her place. “I’ve read up on you, Noah. Your parents were very wealthy, and obviously the wealth was transferred to you. It’s the only reason you were able to afford such an extravagant ring for my daughter…and this place.” She gestured around the room with a look of disdain. “I’m puzzled about why you take an issue with the life I have with my daughter and my husband, when you grew up under similar circumstances.”

“My life and Keaton’s life are night and fucking day.” I laughed. “I received my inheritance because my brother died.”

“They wrote you out of their will?” she asked.

I shrugged at her.

“You remind me very much of the people I went to school with.” She wagged her finger at me and stepped forward. “What I’ve never told Keaton or anyone, is that my mother was a housemaid for the rich. My father was a janitor. But they both scrounged and saved to send me to private school, and later, to college. They worked themselves to death to make sure I had. But unlike you, I appreciated everything they gave me. I worked my entire life to make sure none of their sacrifices were ever in vain. But you? You were a spoiled individual who tried his parents’ patience time and time again until they realized no matter what they did, you would never amount to anything close to a pillar of society—you’re only destiny was to become a deranged bully.”

With my hand around her throat, she was thrown against a wall. “You don’t know very much about me, Sherilynn. Your assumptions only make you look as ugly as you feel inside.”

“I know you have my hand around your throat,” she strained to state, “and it proves what I said about you.”

“You stepped out of bounds with me, Sherilynn. It was way past time I show you what pissing me off gains you. To answer your question, Mrs. Mara, I would kill to make sure my secret stayed a secret, and it doesn’t matter who I’d have to kill. Keaton might mourn you for a while, but I’ll fill her head with me. She will forget you quickly and realize what I did when I met you; you’re a selfish, manipulative bitch.”

She looked over to my right and began to fight with a grin.

Wondering why she could be so smug knowing I meant every word of what I said, my eyes trailed to the door.

Keaton was standing in the doorway with a look of horror on her face as she stared at her mother and me.

“As long as you need me…you’ll keep me from being the guy I don’t want to be. The guy who needed a place like Rebirth to feel normal.”

-THE SECT

I was appalled and livid over what I had just heard and seen. “Take your hands off my mother, Noah,” I ordered, my voice intimidating and deep.

Releasing her, he looked at me and smiled. “I was responding to your mother’s threats against me and you. Sometimes violence is necessary, princess. She stepped out of line. You can’t fault me for that, can you?” 

I maintained my stony demeanor. Fighting through my discomfort and dismay, I approached him while keeping an appropriate distance. “That is not what I saw or heard.”

“You haven’t been standing here the whole time, have you?” He gave me his signature charming smile and sauntered over to me with a walk I once regarded as sensuous and alluring; it was arrogant and off-putting. “Did you hear her offer me money to leave you alone? Did you hear her threaten to tell everyone about our dirty little secret? You know if it gets out, princess, it won’t affect only me, it will affect you, too. We can’t let her do that.”

The shock hit me harder than the pain Noah left me with. For an instant, I was unable to speak, much less regard my mother.

“Well, that settles it then,” my mother stated and straightened her suit. “I believe you’ve made paying you off unnecessary. You revealed your true self to my daughter and—”

“Can you give us a moment alone?” My pleading eyes tore down my mother bit my bit.

She glared at me as though I had lost my mind. 

“Please,” I begged her.